


even the gods we pray to spread their hands in helplessness

by gypsumgreen



Category: Underworld Office (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Betaed, Gen, Help, I'm Sorry, Maybe - Freeform, OC is a minor character, Please Don't Kill Me, Sporadic Updates, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Loop, What Have I Done, actually based off hetaoni this time, after mortal in the underworld office ending, applies to everyone but mostly the oc, but they appear what. thrice?, i have a few ideas on where this is going and none of them are set in stone yet, i'm projecting so hard on river, questionable life choices, they did try though, they're technically the main antagonist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gypsumgreen/pseuds/gypsumgreen
Summary: At the end of the road was a mansion. At the top of the mansion sat a clock.
Relationships: basically everyone & everyone
Comments: 8
Kudos: 48





	even the gods we pray to spread their hands in helplessness

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually what I had in mind when I started writing te ne te ne - I swear I'll update my fics sometime. Anyway, thanks to my awesome beta/editor Eddie, they really helped a lot.
> 
> The fic title is from [痛快的哀艳](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6g0ncregRc)by sodagreen (no, my username was not inspired by him, but it's a happy coincidence). The chapter title is from [他举起右手点名](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuEja-aL1Uk) by the same artist. These two have english subtitles, so I do recommend that you give it a listen. [a hundred years unresolved](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9SVI89We6o) also goes with this chapter too, but it's more of a general mood.

Heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor. 

_Thump thump thump._

He knew that it was not a monster, not a human, nor a ghost. Not even the sort of monster that creates nightmares - oh how he wished for them, for once.

He knew, he knew, he knew so much about this cursed existence. This aberration of grounds. Yet he cannot escape, try as he might.

_Thump thump thump._

The walls were - still are - painted in blood. Old blood. Blood of the non-mortal and the mortal.

The blood of his family.

* * *

It was the finest day of the month when it all went to hell, no indicator whatsoever, and clearly not in a handbasket. Eugene, now of twenty four summers and yet to die, was in the Underworld Office. Patrol is finished and dawn will break in four hours. 

The Office was lit up as always, the fluorescent lights bathing it in a harsh yet hospitable light. How did ghosts pay utility fees? Or did this station simply work on some other sort of rules? Eugene didn’t know and, frankly, it was probably the latter. Non-mortal beings and their dimensions.

“I saw a mansion today when I was patrolling,” Boss spoke up suddenly, startling everyone in the room. The chess piece in his fingers twirled before settling onto the board. “There was likely an extremely malevolent monster in there. It was covered in nightmares.”

“Why didn’t you deal with it, then? I thought you were the strongest of us all?” River teased with a smile, though there was a slight uncertainty in her voice. If he couldn’t… who could? It was possible, then, that that was a being older than him, whose skill exceeded him.

A terrible implication indeed. Most of his time had already peacefully passed on.

He acknowledged it with a nod. “Certainly better than you. I was saying,” he redirected the sentence to all those present in the room, “that this might clear an amount of misdeeds. Not a great amount, but perhaps a hundred or two years. It certainly has its risks, however. Leave it, and it will certainly bring about disorder in the area.”

“You wish to clear it of the interference?” Joan asked, wrinkle-heavy brow knitting itself another crease. 

Boss inclined his head slightly. “Yes,” he said, and that was apparently enough for her, as she gazed back to the old television set.

“Do as you will. I remember the days where comrades-in-arms would venture out of safe areas to scrounge for enemy hideouts. Often, they bring back valuable information. More often, they died somewhere out in the no man’s land, in unmarked graves. Tread carefully.”

Knowing the age difference between Boss and Joan made Eugene want to laugh, but it was quickly quenched by the somber look on Boss’s face. Evidently, that mansion had shaken him a little. 

“What do we do now, then, Boss?” he asked. “Are we to go as a team?” 

He hesitated. “I mean… it would be a great help. But…” he peered at Hayden, frowning.

“It’s dangerous. Even I cannot guarantee that we might make it out alive - well, existing.”

Chess forgotten, River got to her feet.

“Well then, we should go. I’ve been _really_ bored lately-” 

“River.” Boss interrupted. “Let’s- let’s go tomorrow. We won’t be at our best when we get there. It’ll be sunrise soon, and it is crucial that we are at our strongest.”

River sank back into her seat. “Fine, then.”

“Eugene, you should return home. Prepare for tomorrow night.”

“Alright.”

* * *

It was with apprehension that Eugene stepped into the Underworld Office the following night. It was lit up with the same light, but today, the lights were a lot harsher, yet dimmer, as if mourning for something.

“You’re here,” Joan said as he slid in. “And right on time, too.” 

She was holding her cane almost like she expected it to turn into a rifle at the slightest notice. Hayden was unusually quiet, the tension of the room tainting the very air. 

“Where’s Boss and River? They should be here by now…” He queried, looking around. 

“They went out some time ago. Something about scouting it out, but the cats always have better information, so I don’t know why they did that.” Hayden said, fiddling with the brim of his hat. 

“The _reason_ that we went is because the cats notice different things than we do.” Boss said, appearing behind them as if out of thin air.

Someone screamed, but that was probably Eugene himself.

“What, we don’t get a ‘welcome back’?” River laughed, resting her arms on his head. The thing about Eugene was that he was short and the distinct lack of growth spike didn’t help much when River was easily a head or two taller than him.

“You appeared so _suddenly_ ,” he complained, batting her arms off.

“Anyway, Hayden does have a point,” River continued, “we should split up. Hayden, you can ask the cats about the mansion. We didn’t feel anything from it other than a large presence, and that doesn’t help. Joan, you should go with him. There’s a chance that he might get attacked. The area isn’t that friendly, after all.”

“I, River and Eugene will go in. We will meet up inside later. Questions? I’d prefer to finish this tonight; it’s unsettling,” Boss said with the slightest frown on his face.

No one spoke. 

“So be it then. Let’s go.”

* * *

The mansion stood out against the night sky, casting a shadow darker than night itself. Even the moon seemed to hide behind the clouds; only weak shards of light shone through the cover.

The gates opened easily. They weren’t locked, but the hinges didn’t creak, suggesting that it was oiled regularly, and quite recently, too. They were freshly painted, too, the smell of paint still lingering on the steel.

The garden, contrary to his expectations, was not overrun with weeds. In fact, the bushes were pruned with exceeding care, and the trees lining the gravel path leading up to the large doors had no leaves under them, as if there was someone that regularly swept it.

It was clean, almost like it was cleaned the moments before they arrived. But it was abandoned, the large double doors ajar, the windows darkened, the night silent.

Unsettling might not have been the right word to describe it, but there _was_ a slight chill down his back. 

The shadows pressed down heavily on them, thick and smothering.

“Eugene?” River turned to him. “Are you okay?”

“Y- yeah. It’s just _weird_ that it’s so… _immaculate_ here. Like someone’s been here, and regularly too,” he said, quickening his footsteps as to not be left behind. Not that they would do that, but his pace was slightly slower than the two.

“I noticed that, too. With such a heavy presence, even the thickest of mortals would have found the grounds disquieting,” Boss said, his silhouette half-melting into the darkness.

They walked in silence for a while, each step taking them closer to the building.

“Hey, Boss… my back hurts,” River muttered, stopping. The crunching of gravel stopped as the words registered.

Pain? Ghosts didn’t exactly have nerve endings, so they didn’t feel _pain_ per se. Why…?

And- and ghosts didn’t make a sound when they walked either. Something about physical bodies and the lack of them. 

He feels like he’s back in his body, but his body is back in his room, sleeping the sleep of those whose spirit went out wandering. 

“...Are we mortal here?” Eugene asked.

“It may be possible,” came a curt reply, Boss’s voice tinged with anxiety.

“ _No_ ,” was River's response. “I don’t like being mortal. Hurts too much all over. Why are you so _calm? Did you know?_ ”

“I…” there was a slight faltering in Boss’s voice, “before this, no.”

“So do we continue?” Eugene asked. “Should we leave? Clearly, neither of us like this place.”

Surprisingly, it was River who refused to turn back. “It’s precisely because of this that we have to continue,” she argued. “Cleanse this place so that we won’t have to deal with it later. Leaving things like this to stew in itself just leads to more problems.”

Her back cracked as she attempted to stand taller.

“Ugh. Let’s just get this done with.”

* * *

The front hall was dark as the doors opened. Eugene went for the switch that he could just barely see by the moonlight that had appeared yet again.

The mansion itself was just like the front yard. Clean, spacious, sterile. Not even the thinnest layer of dust coated the paneling. The hall branched out in three directions - to the left, to the right, straight forward.

They stood there for a moment, not knowing how to proceed.

It was utterly silent until a shattering sound from the right corridor startled them. 

“What was that?” Eugene asked. “There shouldn’t be anyone here, right…?”

“Maybe it was the wind?” River didn’t look too confident.

“I’ll go investigate it,” Eugene said, turning right.

“This feels like the start of a horror movie,” he heard River remark to Boss before his footsteps carried him out of range.

* * *

There were many doors down the right corridor. All of them were locked. They were surprisingly old compared to the rest of the mansion, faded wood and chipped paint. The doorknobs were tarnished, showing no signs of use.

At the end of the passage was an unlocked door, slightly ajar. He pushed into it cautiously, looking around for some… one? Thing? To come out of nowhere. 

(Now that his spirit could be harmed easily - certain things hurt it, too, but it was never a big deal. Now, he felt his mortal vulnerabilities magnified; he thought of Joan and Hayden and the cats and prayed that they would stay out of this mansion. It was a futile hope and he knew it, he didn’t know if it would affect his body. If he _died_ \- no. He shuddered.)

However, the room was empty; he was alone, the coast was clear. Nothing was there, and he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He wasn’t in danger just yet, but what had caused the sound?

Eugene moved into the room, soft footsteps on the white linoleum. The room looked like a kitchen, a stove and sink on one side of it, a window looking out into the eerie garden above the sink. A refrigerator (still working, he noted) stood to the side. A table and five chairs scattered around it in the back. White walls, white floor, white lights. Clean, too, fitting into the general aesthetic of the mansion.

Well, aside from the shards of a broken plate on the floor. 

_Is this what made the noise? What made it fall?_

He picked a shard up, turning it over in his hands. 

_Doesn’t look out of the ordinary._

He carefully collected the shards and put them on the counter, making sure not to cut himself on the jagged porcelain. All but one, which he decided to keep. Maybe he could defend himself with it?

He turned and walked out of the kitchen.

* * *

Boss and River were gone when he arrived at the front hall.

He stood there, not knowing what to do. What happened to them? Was there something they had to investigate?

He tried the front door, but it was locked.

Five minutes of jiggling the doorknob later, the fact that he - _they_ were locked in, _trapped_ , registered. Despair welled up in him as he slumped against the door.

What now? Would he stay here, or would he go in search of his teammates?

He gritted his teeth. 

Search for them it is, then.

* * *

The left corridor had a door left unlocked. It was a library, the shelves and tomes spotless, as was expected. 

The table on the left had something lying on it. He stepped closer to it, picking it up.

It was a key. An unlabeled key, though, so it could be for one of the many locked doors he had passed.

He pocketed it, but as he turned to leave, he caught sight of something moving in the depths of the library. 

It didn’t take very long for a _thing_ to burst out of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a kudo and/or comment if you liked it. See you (preferably in a week's time)!


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